How to watch Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025 – TV and live stream schedule on TNT Sports, start times, and riders to watch

The 2025 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is here, with plenty of cycling's most exciting stars ready for March 1. Wout van Aert and Demi Vollering are among the big names hoping for glory on Opening Weekend. Here's all you need to know about the event, including routes and riders, plus how to watch live on TV and streaming via TNT Sports and discovery+. Who will conquer the first Spring Classic?

Despite early-season tune-up racing starting in January, for many the cycling season doesn't truly begin until Opening Weekend.

Good news, then, because Opening Weekend is upon us, with its traditional double-header of cobbled classics starting with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Set in the cycling heartland of Flanders, Belgium, Omloop is the first of the top-level World Tour classics and an early indicator of the big favourites' form ahead of the infamous cobbled Monuments: Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.

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This year it takes place on Saturday, March 1, with both the men's and women's races on the same day and covering much of the same route.

Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, another cobbled classic but a racing tier below Omloop, follows on Sunday, also live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Beginning in ’t Kuipke in Ghent and finishing in Ninove, the two Belgian races wind through a succession of punchy hills and tricky cobbled sections, including some of the most historic climbs in cycling.

Last year's races were a clean sweep for Visma-Lease a Bike. Jan Tratnik won a two-up sprint with Nils Politt from a late breakaway, and Dutch veteran Marianne Vos came out on top in a sprint against an elite group of pre-race favourites, including world champion Lotte Kopecky.

Nobody has defended their Omloop title on either the men's or women's side since Greg van Avermaet in 2017, but can Tratnik or Vos buck the trend?

Regardless of the result, with a stacked field - as ever - on the start line, the racing should be electric from start to finish.

As the countdown ticks on, here's all you need to know about Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

When is Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025?

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad takes place on Saturday, March 1, with both the men's and women's races taking place on the same day.

How to watch Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025

You can watch all the action at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad live on TNT Sports and ad-free on discovery+.

Following Eurosport's integration into TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, all cycling action from Omloop onwards will be broadcast on TNT Sports and discovery+.

The men's race will be live on TNT Sports 2 and discovery+ from 12:00 GMT, while coverage of the women's race begins at 15:00 GMT.

TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.

You can subscribe to TNT Sports through discovery+, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

‘The greatest of all time is back!’ – Vos secures stunning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victory

Video credit: TNT Sports

Who is riding in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad men's race?

None of cycling's 'Big Four' - Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic - will be in action, but plenty of the great and the good will take to the start line in Ghent.

Jan Tratnik, now riding for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, will look to defend his title, while five of the last six champions before him - Dylan van Baarle, Wout van Aert, Davide Ballerini, Jasper Stuyven, and Michael Valgren - will also be in action.

Van Baarle and Van Aert will line up alongside a formidable Visma-Lease a Bike squad, including Matteo Jorgenson, who was a lively presence at last year's race, and Christophe Laporte.

Nils Politt, last year's runner-up, may feel he has unfinished business at the race, but he could also be riding in assistance of his new UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate, Jhonatan Narvaez, who won the season-opening Tour Down Under.

Former Milano-Sanremo winner Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) is often one to watch at one-day races, and sprinter-cum-all-rounder Jasper Philipsen (another Milano-Sanremo winner) is the likeliest of the fast men to make it over the climbs and still have the legs to contest the finish.

Tom Pidcock has already shown fine form this season and will lead the line-up for his new team Q36.5, while the likes of classics specialist Tom Skujins and young Czech talent Mathias Vacek, both riding for a strong Lidl-Trek contingent, may also throw their hat into the ring.

Cycling Omloop 2024 Men Highlights short english

Video credit: TNT Sports

Who is riding in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad women's race?

The women's race has an even better line-up, with any number of potential winners. Cyclocross star Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) is at home on the bumpy, tricky terrain that characterises this region.

Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), Loes Adegeest (FDJ–Suez) and Alison Jackson (EF Education–Oatly) could all make a long-range bid for glory.

From the early-season racing we know Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) is on good form, as is SD Worx-Protime sprinter Lorena Wiebes, who could follow in Marianne Vos' footsteps and win in a sprint finish.

Movistar have puncheur Liane Lippert - a Giro d'Italia Women stage winner - in their ranks, while British hopes may centre on Pfeiffer Georgi, although the Picnic-PostNL rider may still not be at her best following a nasty crash at last year's Tour de France Femmes.

Fellow Brits Lizzie Deignan - winner of this race in 2016 - and Anna Henderson will both be in action for Lidl-Trek.

Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto have another former winner, Tiffany Cromwell, on their start list, but their hopes will likely be pinned on Tour de France Femmes winner Kasia Niewiadoma.

The strongest squad looks to be FDJ-Suez, who beefed up their ranks over the winter with the addition of climber and all-round extraordinaire Demi Vollering and French GC contender Juliette Labous, both of whom will want to open their spring classics account with a win.

Former champion Lotte Kopecky doesn't look set to race in Omloop, but if SD Worx-Protime make a late change to their roster, we could see the first ding-dong of the year between team-mates-turned-rivals Kopecky and Vollering.

What is the route for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025?

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2025 (women's route). Image credit: Flanders Classics.

Image credit: TNT Sports

This year the men's peloton will tackle 197km and the women will take on 137.9km, following much of the same route.

It's an up-and-down parcours featuring 11 hills for the men, the majority condensed into the final 70km, and alternating regular road surfaces with tricky cobbled sections.

Infamous cobbled sections include the Muur-Bosberg, the Molenberg, the Berendries, the cobblestone climb in Zwalm 42km from the finish, and three passes over the cobbles at Haaghoek and Leberg.

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